Wow! Two posts in a week!
Anyway, post is going to be about writing the Russian Ukraine War Factbook (vol 1), hopefully the first of several volumes on the war. Writing non-fiction has its own challenges and its own pitfalls and I hope to write about some of those challenges
This book came out of the mind of Jamie Rife of SJR Research. A fan of Battletech, he had contacted me a while back, and asked of I would be interested in writing for him. SJR was expanding into the world of miniature war games, and they needed writers. From this contact and conversation, we collaborated on a article that was published in the US Naval Institute's Proceedings Magazine (January 2022, "New Wrinkles to Drone Warfare", pg 50-54.)
When the Russians invaded Ukraine, I and everyone else thought it would be a quick and complete victory for the Russians. But after a week, it became clear the Ukrainians were NOT going to fold, and the Russians were not steamrolling what was supposed to be a weak and disorganized Ukrainian armed forces. After the Russians retreated from Kyiv in early April, it raised a few questions, questions that Jamie and I discussed via instant messaging and video call.
Back during the Gulf War, (Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm) Game Designers' Workshop (GDW, not to be confused with Games' Workshop, who have the Warhammer games.) put out a couple of books covering the units and equipment being used by both the Allies and Iraq. The books was geared toward the tabletop wargamer, giving them the basic data to create their own scenarios for whatever games system they were using. But the public, who wanted to know more, started buying the books for their own understanding. It was this idea to write a simple, overhead view of the war which led to this book. Jamie asked if I wanted to write this. I agreed and were worked together to develop exactly what as going to be covered. Since the war was still going on, we decided that this would be a series of books on the war, the first volume covering the background of the invasion, a look at the leaders of each country, the equipment they were using and an overview of the first phase of the war (February 28 -- April 7)
The book is designed to be a layman's look at the war. It's not a deep look with background sources and detailed behind the scenes documents. it is not a scholar's look at this war. It's written so as to be a resource that someone who isn't up to date on what's happening in Ukraine can pick it up, read it and say afterwards, "I understand what is happening in the war." It's also written for any wargamer to gleam enough data to recreate scenarios for their table top.
If you want to take a closer look at the book, or to buy it, you can go here: https://www.amazon.com/Russia-Ukraine-War-Factbook-Craig-Reed/dp/B0BL5CRLLK/ref=sr_1_18?qid=1672081631&refinements=p_27%3ACraig+A.+Reed&s=books&sr=1-18&text=Craig+A.+Reed
or here:
Next post, I hope to talk about the research and writing to bring this book together.
Later,
Craig
All the Outcast Ops novels I co-authored with Rick Chesler are on Amazon and are part of the Kindle Direct program. In the US:
In addition, there is a physical version of Watchlist here: Outcast Ops: Watchlist Paperback
For those in the United Kingdom,
For anyone else, please check your country's Amazon Website (if there is one).
Also, check out the other Outcast ops novels:
In addition, Outcast Ops novels are on audiobooks! If you're member of Audible, you can listen to them free! The audio versions can be found here:
The audios for Game of Drones Games of Drones (Audible) and The Poseidon Initiative The Poseidon Initiative are also up on Audible, or though Amazon!
Please read or listen and leave a review!
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